


live fast (it's a feeling not an art)

by reliquiaen



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 08:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9540170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reliquiaen/pseuds/reliquiaen
Summary: “You owe me a drink,” Kara informs her flatly.I was prompted with "kidnapping where lena gets herself captured just so she can get private time/attention" but may have gotten distracted? Sorry anon. I hope this is close enough.





	

Following leads is not like stopping aliens (or other assorted super powered individuals). It’s not _harder_ per se, but Kara has gotten probably too accustomed to people assisting her investigations simply because of the symbol on her chest. Consequently, not having people cooperate is wildly frustrating.

And worse, her boss is _unforgiving_. Which is fine, she likes a challenge, but also perhaps it’d be nice to have someone to get pointers from. (She tried Alex. It hadn’t gone so well.)

It didn’t seem to matter to the people she’d interviewed so far that several girls had gone missing. Some were the daughters of wealthy members of the more high society circles, some were not; in total six young women had gone missing, ranging in age from twenty to twenty-eight. And everyone she spoke to was _useless_. She had maybe pulled a few Supergirl strings and asked Maggie to retrieve security tapes from relevant stores and street cameras but there was nothing of use.

All in all it seemed she’d wasted her morning. Although Snapper would probably remind her that if she could cross a lead off her list of viable routes to follow that it wasn’t a waste. But hot damn did it feel like it all the same.

She huffs as she steps back out onto the sidewalk, squinting in the glare of the hot sun. A quick glance at her watch tells her she should probably find lunch; it’s been at least six hours since breakfast. Another glance around to see if there are viable prospects in her immediate vicinity, and she spots a familiar façade.

Funny that her meandering lead-chasing travails should bring her to this neighbourhood at lunch time. The L-Corp logo branded on the building a few blocks down seems like serendipity. (Lena almost never breaks for lunch, the silly woman.)

Kara orders Chinese for two.

Jess doesn’t even look up when Kara steps out of the elevator. She’s shuffling through something that’s probably very important but she manages to spare the brain power to say, “She has a meeting in fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll only be ten.”

She’s already crossed the room to open the door when Jess makes a disapproving sound in the back of her throat. Too late now though. Kara suspects Jess isn’t her biggest fan.

In exactly the same preoccupied fashion as her assistant, Lena doesn’t look up from her work. There’s a little crinkle between her brows as she taps away on her laptop. Kara pauses, hesitant to interrupt whatever has captured her attention so powerfully. As she dithers, Lena lifts a hand to thumb at her brow, rubbing in a way that suggests she’s probably been working since five in the morning and has a headache.

Deliberately, Kara jostles the paper bag in her hand and Lena finally looks up. The concerned expression on her face melts away, replaced by the smile she wears whenever she sees Kara (or Supergirl, but that’s… different… probably).

“Kara,” she says, no trace of the worry that had been etched across her features is betrayed in her tone. “What a lovely surprise.”

Carefully, Kara lifts her bag. “I figured you’d skip lunch.”

Lena’s smile tilts to one side wryly. “Ah. And did you fly across town to bring me lunch?”

Kara rolls her eyes, that had been a one-time slip but Lena has made it a habit to continually remind her of it. “I walked actually; I was in the neighbourhood following leads for an article.”

“Oh yes,” Lena replies, eyes lighting up with a soft twinkle that Kara had recently learned indicates her well-controlled mischievous side. She motions to the sofa before adding, “Saving the world one story at a time. What’s today’s crisis?”

Sometimes, Kara has to actually remind herself that Lena’s teasing was not indicating that she knew about her Super-Secret. Just good natured teasing. Shrug it off and move on, Danvers.

She adjusts her glasses across her nose and smiles. Wanly. “Those missing girls?” she begins, unpacking the bag and handing Lena the dishes she’s so fond of. “Information has not been easy to find,” Kara sighs, frowning at her lunch.

“There was no video of them being taken?” Lena wonders.

Kara shakes her head. “Well there was,” she amends. “But nothing super helpful. One girl was taken from outside a building and the security camera caught it happen but the two men were impossible to identify.”

Lena lifts an eyebrow. “Even for your sister’s ultra-top-secret division of the secret service?”

“FBI,” she corrects out of habit. “And no. Plus,” she admits a little sheepish, “that feels sort of like cheating.”

“Isn’t the point of being a journalist to get sources?” Lena points out with an offhand flick of her wrist. “I’d consider that an advantage over your peers, honestly. Use it.”

Kara purses her lips. “I guess.”

Lena shifts slightly, settling back further into the couch, body angled towards Kara. “Some of those girls had high profile parents,” she muses. “I saw them on television making a big fuss about it.”

“Shouldn’t they?”

“Oh sure, but nobody is covering the disappearances of the less wealthy girls,” Lena observes (not a little acerbically, Kara thinks). “Still, they have the reach, so start with them.”

“And you think they’ll talk to little old me?” Kara laughs at the idea of anyone wanting to take a moment of their time to talk to a green reporter. “There are more powerful people for them to talk to.”

That conspiratorial twinkle glimmers back to life in Lena’s eyes. “Maybe I can help you with that.” She pauses, sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and smiles in a way that Kara thinks should probably trigger her basic flight instincts. “But you’ll have to do me a favour first.”

Kara’s smile tries for brave but falls several lightyears short. “And at what point do we move past the bargaining stage of friendship?” she attempts to tease but Lena remains unfazed.

Instead she stands, half eaten lunch deposited on the coffee table and Kara (not for the first time) wonders how she can stand to skip as many meals as she does. “It’s nothing strenuous, but I can’t justify attempting to reach that shelf in these heels.” Lena indicates a half empty bottle of some sort of murky alcohol on the top shelf of her cabinet. It’s well and truly out of reach of both of them, even in heels.

Kara eyes her wonderingly. “How did it even get there?”

“A misadventure involving the first half of the bottle, a late night conference call and the conviction that it never needed to happen again,” she replies with a feigned air of mystery. “I may have surrendered my dignity and used my chair as a stool. But that’s hardly safe and I have no intention of doing it again.”

“But you need the alcohol now because…” She’s turned her gaze to the problem at hand wondering if she’ll have to do the same thing.

“Because my next meeting will absolutely require hard liquor.”

Kara sighs and kicks off her heels, rolling Lena’s chair over to the shelves. “I fully expect this will never be spoken of again,” she grumbles, climbing carefully up onto the seat and making sure her balance is steady before stretching up the last of the way to grab at the bottle.

Behind her, Lena makes a soft humming sound, thoughtful and low and Kara vaguely wonders what her expression looks like right at that moment. Then the chair wobbles and she focuses on reaching the bottle without falling to her death. (It’s dramatic she knows, but it’s not like she can just… fly up to it.)

“More than once,” Lena mutters, mostly to herself Kara assumes, “I’ve wondered how convenient it must be to be able to fly.”

The chair nearly slips out from under Kara entirely at that.

“You think I’d be standing on your office chair on my tip toes if I could fly?” Kara jokes but her tone falls flat.

Lena makes another of those thoughtful noises. “No more taking the elevator,” she adds. “Nothing would ever be too high ever again. No need to be afraid of heights.”

As Kara settles back onto the flat of her feet, bottle successfully cradled to her chest, she turns to look down at Lena, a strange feeling fluttering in her chest. “You’re afraid of heights?” She drops down off the chair and places the bottle on Lena’s desk, watching her profile closely.

Lena bobs her head. “Of falling, of not being caught at least, yes.”

Sometimes Kara wonders if Lena occasionally starts a new topic without informing her. This is one such instance. She reaches out to rest a hand on Lena’s wrist. “You know,” Kara says softly. “That’s why we have heroes.”

“And I suppose Supergirl can take time out of her busy schedule to visit little old me at the drop of a hat, can she?” The teasing tone is back. (Kara hopes her choice of words is just that: teasing.)

“Maybe just don’t jump from any high places.”

“I’ll take that under advisement.” Lena opens a drawer and pulls out a notepad; she flips through a few pages before handing it to Kara. “When I heard about the first two missing girls I did a little investigating of my own. The oldest one is close to my age and a girl has to look out for herself.”

Written in Lena’s impeccable handwriting are the contact details for the families of two of the missing girls. Kara takes a photo and hands it back. “Thank you.”

Lena shrugs one shoulder as if she does this all the time. (Perhaps she does.) “Someone has to save the day. I’m happy to do my part.”

“Well,” Kara pauses, unsure what else to say. She shuffles her glasses again. “Thank you. I’ll keep you updated if you like.”

“Yes, that would be nice. And,” she adds, almost an afterthought, “I’m glad you didn’t think I took them.”

Kara rolls her eyes again. “You’re a good person, Lena.” She hesitates before adding, “Maybe save me some of that,” she indicates the bottle she’d retrieved. “I have a feeling I’m going to need it at the end of today.”

Lena laughs. “I make no promises. Plus, I think you’re underestimating exactly how charismatic you can be. You’ll do just fine.” The twinkle glitters back to life in Lena’s eyes as she says that.

“Oh.” Before Kara has a chance to try and come up with something to say to that there’s a knock on the door.

“Miss Luthor, your appointment is here.” Jess’s head appears around the doorframe, eyes cutting only briefly to Kara. Her look is still pointed and something about it just screams ‘that was longer than ten minutes’.

“Thank you, Jess, I’ll be right there.” The door clicks shut but Kara can still feel Jess’s disappointment radiating from the other room. Or perhaps furious indifference? The woman was hard to read. “Sorry to cut your visit short, Kara,” Lena goes on, actually sounding as if it were a shame. “Do stop by later.” She points to the bottle as she says that, as if a drink would be the only reason for Kara to come by.

“Sure, good luck with your meeting.” Her feet shuffle awkwardly, a practice that is partly habit and partly because she’s feeling supremely awkward. She backs out the door, shooting Lena one last smile, and then studiously ignores Jess as she waits for the elevator.

Lena was right about one thing though: not having to suffer elevators is definitely a pro for flying.

 

*

 

The address on the paper brings her to a mansion. There is absolutely no other word for the sprawling three storey construction before her. With a big round about driveway and impeccable hedges and that exact suburban housewife look that seems so cheesy in TV dramas.

For a moment Kara reconsiders this decision, but her cab is already pulling away and she’s left with no real choice but to proceed. And really, some reporter she’ll make if she’s scared of interviewing every other high profile individual in the city. (Lena doesn’t count, there’s nothing scary about her.)

Still it takes her longer than she’d like to knock on the expensive door. When she does though, it takes a few moments before it’s pulled in by a middle aged man with dark bags under his eyes and a slump to his shoulders that seems out of place. His eyes take her in but he doesn’t seem to much care who she is or why she’s there. Presumably this is Gabriel Matthews, father of Alicia, one of the missing girls.

“Good morning, sir.” Belatedly she thinks those are probably not the right words. The man’s daughter is missing. “Um. I’m looking for your daughter.”

“You’re not with the police,” he notes after a moment.

“No, sir. I’m a reporter.” Again it occurs to her _after_ the words are spoken that he perhaps wouldn’t want to talk to a reporter. She considers it prudent to add, “And I’m going to find the missing girls.”

He exhales heavily and runs a hand through his hair. From the way it’s rumpled, Kara thinks he’s been doing that a lot. There’s another beat and then he steps inside, away from the door, and motions her to follow him.

Kara blinks, vaguely surprised. She still follows him though. He leads her to a sitting room, and there are papers haphazardly spread across the table, a TV is on the wall, muted, but playing the all-day news channel. He sinks into an armchair and Kara sits carefully on the settee across from him.

“I suppose you’ve spoken to the police?” he asks quietly.

“They didn’t have anything really to tell me,” she explains. “I’m hoping I can find out more about her.”

“I don’t know what I can tell you that might be useful,” he says slowly. “The police said there wasn’t any connection between any of the…” His lips twist sourly and he can’t finish the sentence.

Kara spends a few long seconds thinking over everything she learned about the other girls from the files Maggie gave her. None of them went to the same schools, played the same sports, came from families with the same basic income. A few had the same hobbies. And well, she has to start somewhere.

“What was she passionate about?”

Matthews looks at her like she’s lost her mind. “She was… _is_ , for reasons I never understood, interested in all this… pro-alien stuff going around at the moment. She wanted to help younger aliens get a good education. Alicia has been working through a few programs to help them get the learning support they need.” He pauses, frowns, picks absently at the seam of his jeans and then continues. “Her little sister, Cassie, she has learning difficulties. I guess that’s where it started. She wants to help people.”

Kara’s heart sinks right through her ribcage and flops around in her stomach, clenching at the thought that someone who wants to do _good_ for others would have this happen to them. She inhales, trying to steady herself.

“You’re not pro-alien?” It’s not a question she wants to ask but feels it’s necessary all the same.

He arches a shoulder. “I don’t have a problem with aliens; I just don’t see why they need the help. Most of them have… superpowers.” Then he holds up a hand, seeming to expect Kara to press that. “I know. Alicia and I argued about the language barriers, lack of cultural and historical understanding and all that. I know. I’ve never for one second doubted that she was doing something good for them. It’s…”

“You think aliens might have taken her.” Her words aren’t phrased as a question, more a realisation.

Matthews just bobs his head. “Why wouldn’t they? Someone so interested in them like Alicia is… There’s a fine line to walk and sometimes I wonder if she crossed it.”

“But it’s not like she was interested in their biology or…” Kara trails off, thinking about that. Maybe there _was_ a link between the girls.

He doesn’t seem to realise that Kara’s thoughts have gone off on a tangent. Instead he says, a little sourly, “But there are all sorts of legal issues around aliens. Their rights as citizens to enrol in schools or get an education or be treated at hospitals and stuff like that. Maybe… maybe they want something… maybe…” He again trails off, clearly not wanting to follow that thought to its inevitable conclusion.

It takes another too-long moment before Kara blinks back to reality and stands. “Thank you, sir. I have to make a phone call. I’m sorry for disturbing you.”

He follows her slowly back to the front door. “No. It’s okay. The more people looking for her, the better her chances.”

“Right,” Kara agrees, smiling more hopefully than she thinks she should. “I’ll make sure she gets home safe.”

Matthews returns her smile, it’s pale and watery and she knows he’s not sure she’ll actually do it. Then the door is closed and she’s walking back down the circular drive pulling her phone from her pocket.

It’s answered on the third ring. “Danvers.”

“Hey, Alex. I have a favour.”

“Is this for your journalising?”

Kara rolls her eyes. “Yes. Can you find the files for the missing girls and tell me what their stances were on aliens?”

There’s silence on the other end, presumably as Alex does just this. “Far as I can tell they’re all pro-alien. That’s a bit of a flimsy tie though, don’t you think?”

“Not if they were all working on things that would benefit alien life here,” Kara explains. She fills Alex in on her visit with Matthews. “What if the other girls were all doing similar things?”

More silence. “I’ll look into it.”

“Thanks, Alex.”

“Of course. And let me know about games’ night this week. Winn keeps bothering me like he thinks I’m the one making that decision.”

Kara laughs, agrees, hangs up and launches herself into the air. She has another family to meet.

 

*

 

The second family was exceptionally talkative. They had the same outlook as Matthews: the more people looking, the better their chances. Which is fair, Kara knows, but damn they were a little too willing to tell her anything. That left her with a lot of information that was probably useless.

She had found out one thing that only increased her suspicions that these girls had been taken for a reason. The young woman was a cosmetic artist for a film crew. She’d recently begun exploring options for helping aliens conceal their more unusual features.

It left Kara with the distinct feeling that something hinky was absolutely going on here.

As she’d promised earlier, she stopped by L-Corp for that drink (that wouldn’t actually help her at all but that was beside the point). Per usual, Jess ignores her as she crosses from the elevator to the door. Kara presses the door in and stops.

The bottle is still on the table where it had been left earlier but Lena is nowhere to be seen. Kara tips her glasses down her nose and checks the side room but Lena isn’t there either. She shuffles her bag strap across her shoulder and steps back into the foyer.

“Jess, is she out?”

At that, Jess looks up. “No? Her meeting finished an hour ago. Is she not in there?”

Kara shakes her head.

It’s only then that concern flicks across Jess’s face. “I… didn’t see her leave.” There’s worry in her voice too. Worry that infects Kara in a way she can’t describe. (She even spends a few brief moments remembering their earlier conversation about not jumping from high places even though the idea of Lena Luthor jumping off her own balcony is completely ludicrous.)

They stand there a moment in complete silence, both watching the other as if expecting them to suddenly share some pertinent information. Eventually, Jess picks up her phone and dials. Kara’s superhearing lets her know that she’s called Lena’s mobile and gets voicemail. Jess tries another number but Kara tunes her out, too busy searching the city for sounds of Lena.

She comes up empty.

Jess’s hand shakes, rattling the phone as it lands in the cradle. “I can’t find her anywhere.” Her voice trembles.

Kara is already in the elevator when she says, “I’ll find her. She has my number, right? Call me if you find her.”

Next thing she knows she’s standing on the sidewalk staring at the sun setting down the street wondering how the hell her day turned out like this.

 

*

 

Alex calls her back later with news. All the girls do indeed have, not just pro-alien leanings, but have worked actively to improve their living conditions and options as citizens. One was a psychiatrist working to help aliens relate to humans; another a doctor, like Alex, learning about alien biology and diseases and how Earth illnesses affect them; a third worked at a job-seeking company, helping aliens find work that wouldn’t harm them. The last girl, the oldest of them, was one of the wealthy ones; she’d been funding a shelter for younger aliens, orphans, and was funding other such shelters all across the state. She was calling them alienages, pun intended, Kara suspected.

In spite of this breakthrough, Kara still had no idea why they’d been taken. What purpose could any of them possibly serve? There had been no ransom notifications, not that some of them would get money anyway.

Kara muses on this while Alex continues to speak in the background, explaining the finer points of some of their interest areas. It isn’t until Alex says, “And there’s bad news, too.”

Then Kara snaps to attention. “You haven’t found bodies have you?”

Alex snorts. “No. No the bad news is that Lena Luthor is officially missing.”

“I know she’s missing, Alex, I stopped by her work this evening.”

There’s a pause, probably while Alex gathers herself enough not to tell Kara off for that. What she says in place of a scolding is, “And you didn’t think that was important to tell me earlier? What happened?”

So Kara explains Lena’s mysterious disappearance from her top floor office, right out from under Jess’s nose. As it turns out, Jess had called the police not long after Kara’s departure and reported the incident. Alex informs her that Lena is being considered one of the missing girls, bringing the total up to seven.

“Pretty sure she breaks the connection there, sis,” Alex notes. “What has Luthor ever done that’s pro-alien?”

It takes a moment but then it clicks. “The alien detection device,” she breathes. “What are the odds that the science behind it is state-of-the-art enough to make her useful for… whatever this is?”

“Honestly? Low,” Alex deadpans. “But I suppose if there’s anything alien-biology involved you could have another lead there.”

Kara sighs. “No, I just have a lot of connect-the-dots without any idea of what’s going on and who’s behind it. I need something _more_.”

“I’ve got Winn tracing Lena’s phone,” Alex tells her softly. “If she still has it that’s the lead you want.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna owe me, sis.”

Kara just smiles. “Sure, whatever.”

 

*

 

Winn does manage to trace Lena’s phone. Clever woman that she is, Lena must have concealed it somehow so it wasn’t found. The phones of all the other women were found in bins or gutters after a trace picked them up.

Kara, as a reporter and not a superhero, sits in the back of a van with Alex and several other DEO agents. They have even given her a black vest to wear over her sweater. Another big car full of NCPD officers – including Maggie who had insisted on helping bring these girls and all their pro-alien thoughts home – rumbles up the street behind them, and behind that, a medical van. Just in case.

With her glasses sitting low on her nose, she watches through the windowless door as the city disappears behind them and they trundle into suburbia. She frowns. What a weird place to hide six, probably seven, kidnap victims.

Another ten or maybe fifteen minutes pass as they travel further from the centre of the city and eventually pull up across the street from the house where Lena’s phone resides. At least, that’s where it was according to the beeping coming from the little tracking device Alex holds. She leans forward to peer past Alex through the windscreen at the house.

It looks perfectly normal to her. No different to any of the other houses in the street.

“Gear up,” Alex says, then clicks on the mic on her collar and asks, “Ready?”

Maggie’s static-y voice replies, “Whenever you are, Danvers.”

Alex twists to stare hard at Kara. “Stay here.”

“But –”

“No. You came with as a reporter so you play that role. No superheroing. We’ve got this.” The stern look in Alex’s eyes brooks no nonsense so Kara just sighs heavily to let her know she’s not pleased about this. She does nod though.

And as soon as Alex steps out of the van Kara is out right after her. None of the DEO agents in their heavy gear so much as look at her. They know who she is, sure, but they won’t argue with Alex. Maggie, however, gives her a questioning look as if to ask ‘we’re probably going to fight aliens and Supergirl has to stay in the car, Alex, are you insane’. (Because Maggie apparently knows that now and has maybe known the whole time and when Kara asked, Alex had cryptically replied with ‘she detects’ so that wasn’t worrying at all.)

Still, when Alex turns and crosses the street, Maggie doesn’t linger. She and her officers simply fan out and follow. Kara, for her part, hasn’t ever had to stand and watch others do things like this before and waiting on the footpath with her hands clenched tightly around her satchel she decides she can’t stand it.

The two storey house is fairly modest (compared to the mansion she visited yesterday, anyway) and all the windows are dark. Alex and her group disappear around the back while Maggie waits for her go at the front door. Then they’re all barging into the house and they disappear from sight. It takes a moment before Kara remembers she can still watch them just fine and she slides her glasses into the pocket on her protective vest so she can keep an eye on them without worry.

There’s a basement as well, she notes. Maggie’s team sweep through the front and she leads them down the stairs. Kara watches them, knowing that Alex, if she finds the aliens, won’t have much to worry about. There are eight figures in the basement and Kara focuses her hearing on them. It takes her exactly four seconds to sigh in relief when she hears Lena’s soft voice reassuring the other hostages that they’re most likely being rescued. None of them are bound, she notes, confused.

And also. Eight? Only seven women were taken.

There’s shouting across the street and then a loud bang. Alex’s group had found a trio of people – the kidnappers, presumably – and they’d resisted. By the time Kara locates them they’ve been subdued. She can vaguely make out as Alex and Maggie confer through their comm-link.

“… another hostage?”

“… a kid, actually…”

Then nothing. It takes a few more moments and then they’re marching the three kidnappers across the street in handcuffs. The young women are all confused but seem perfectly content to follow their rescuers to the medical van and climb in. None of them seem to be hurt.

Lena is holding the hand of a small girl, no more than eight, Kara would guess. She looks scared, which is probably to be expected given the people with weapons all around her.

“I was expecting a different uniform,” Lena teases when she sees Kara, guiding the girl over to her. She nods at the vest and Kara reflexively glances down to see the FBI across her chest.

“Oh, um.” She reaches up to fiddle with her glasses but they aren’t there. She hastily retrieves them from the pocket and settles them on her nose. For a second she’s going to question that, but instead she just smiles. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Lena waves that away. “They weren’t after anything awful. Though,” she adds thoughtfully, “they probably could’ve gone about this whole thing with a little more brains.”

“How did they even get you out of your office?”

Lena frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Jess said she didn’t see you leave.”

She scoffs. “Jess almost never sees me leave. But she wasn’t at her desk when I was… ‘escorted’ out. I suppose they waited for her to take a bathroom break.”

That actually made a lot of sense. They probably should have thought to check the security cameras. For a moment, Kara just stares at Lena, making sure she really is okay. Then her eyes wander down and land on the girl.

Her skin is a strange yellowish colour and Kara’s first instinct is that she’s probably ill. But then her eyes are a similar odd golden colour and Kara crouches. Her face is shaded by a tiny hoodie, the cowl pulled forward as far as it will go.

“Hello,” she says gently. “My name’s Kara.”

“I’m Gwen,” the girl replies slowly, her accent thick.

“Is that short for something, Gwen?”

The girl blinks, her eyes are double lidded. “Garwena.”

Kara feels when Maggie stops behind her. “She’s an orphan?”

“I’d guess so. She’s Alstairan,” she explains, glancing up at Maggie. “Do you know any?”

Maggie shakes her head.

“Where are your parents, Gwen?” Kara asks her.

She blinks again, eyes darting up to look at Lena. Then, “Gone. Some men took them.”

“There have been aliens going missing for a few months,” Maggie adds.

“Roulette?” Kara wonders aloud.

“She’s long gone,” Lena tells them. “After your little showdown she disappeared. Far as I’ve heard she’s no longer in the country.”

Maggie sighs, rubbing her forehead. “There won’t be any answers here.”

“What about Gwen?” Lena asks, hand visibly tightening around the little girl’s fingers. “The foster system wouldn’t be kind to her.”

Maggie shrugs. “If you have a suggestion, I’m all ears. Otherwise the department will drown in the paperwork and red tape that goes with homing an alien.” Her eyes flick to Kara, a clear question, but she says nothing else.

Lena, ever astute, notices. “Those men, they kidnapped these people to try and help her. A mislead solution, naturally, but they meant well. Perhaps one of the women will know what to do?”

“One of them does run a series of shelters for young aliens,” Kara reminds Maggie.

She bobs her head slowly, still thinking. “Take the girl with you for now. I’m sure Alex will have something to add later.” One of her officers calls for her attention then and she steps away.

Slowly, Lena and Gwen follow Kara over to the DEO van (with FBI painted on the side) and climb in. Gwen curls into Lena’s side and seemingly falls right to sleep. With three of them on the seat Kara finds her thigh pressed a little closer to Lena’s than she might like.

“So,” Lena begins, that twinkle in her eyes present once more. “You did find the girls.”

“Well I had help,” Kara tells her, explaining her trip to the families. “Thanks for that.”

“And thank _you_ for saving the day, once again,” Lena laughs.

Kara watches her closely. “You know I’m just writing a piece on this, don’t you? These people did all the day saving.”

“Oh, Kara.” She’s smiling. Kara finds it vaguely unsettling. “I think we all know you’re the superhero here. Persisting in finding these women is only the half of it.” Her fingers brush across the inside of Kara’s wrist and _that’s_ an altogether different sort of unsettling.

Before Kara can do more than open her mouth, the driver’s door slams. “I’ve been told to take you wherever you want to go, Miss Luthor,” says the man gruffly.

“To L-Corp, if you would, sir.”

He gives her a strange look but turns the van in that direction all the same. They sit in complete silence the whole way.

 

*

 

“You didn’t have to come up, you know. I’m fine.”

“You owe me a drink,” Kara informs her flatly.

Lena beams. “Yes I do.” Her smile doesn’t waver as she collects glasses from the cabinet and pours them both drinks. “Do you know what’s going to happen to Gwen?” She glances over to where the girl is sound asleep on the other couch.

Kara shrugs, slumping onto the sofa beside Lena. “Alex texted that Maggie will come pick her up later, she said Gwen could stay with her. My sister I mean, but I think Maggie was probably behind the idea.” She pauses to stare into her drink before quietly adding, “Alex may regret agreeing at some point…”

Lena chuckles at little, clearly having heard her. “Well some of those girls definitely grew attached to her, I’m sure she’ll have somewhere to call home.”

She spins her glass in her fingers, watching the liquid swirl. Then, “Why did they even take you?” she asks. “I haven’t been able to figure it out.”

Lena arches an eyebrow imperiously. “I’m not pro-alien enough for you?”

“No, but… All the other girls were doing things actively to try and improve alien life,” Kara isn’t so much answering Lena’s question as she is working her thoughts out aloud. “I thought perhaps they might have been interested in your alien detecting technology, but that can’t have been all. Alstairans are obviously not human, they have flora instead of hair, I mean, they didn’t need to know that.”

“Perhaps it is my exceptional alien communication skills,” Lena suggests flatly.

For a second, Kara’s only response is a soft hum. It doesn’t really add up, she can’t imagine why they’d want Lena. Except maybe for her bank account, but even then several of the other girls had been from wealthy families, so that’s kind of moot.

She does eventually admit, “I worried, you know.” Lena doesn’t ask about what, it’s obvious what she means, she simply tilts her head, an invitation to continue. “When you weren’t here, when Jess couldn’t reach you. It was like… the more panicked she became that she’d misplaced her boss, the more anxious I was too.” Kara lifts her eyes to search Lena’s. She doesn’t know what she’s looking for, wouldn’t know if she found it, but Lena’s expression is soft. “Don’t get kidnapped again. For any reason.”

“Even if I know you’ll save me?” It’s not the teasing tone that normally goes with Lena’s comments; it’s just as soft as the smile tugging at her lips.

Kara’s gaze flicks between her eyes, wondering. “Even then,” she agrees. “Not even with Supergirl on your speed-dial.”

“Supergirl _is_ on my speed-dial.” And Lena says that with such an off-hand tone, as if _everyone_ _does, Kara_ that it takes her completely by surprise. “The fact that she didn’t make an official appearance at that rescue today is odd, I think.”

But there’s this _knowing_ in Lena’s eyes, something that says she’s perfectly aware that Supergirl was there today. Something about the emphasis she put on official, the way her eyes slip down to the top button of Kara’s dress shirt (which is… not something that has a flush creeping up her neck, it’s _not_ ). She has to consciously remind herself not to squeeze too hard on the glass, but she also has to remind herself to breathe which she should probably not have to do at this point.

“Um…? Maybe she was busy?” It’s flimsy and Kara knows it, can hear it in her voice. The strange sensation between her ribs can only be compared to that one time Eliza berated her for covering for Alex when she snuck out. It comes accompanied by a little voice in her mind saying ‘ _busted_ ’.

“Kara.” Lena’s tone also successfully conveys the ‘I’m not an idiot’ that goes with that. “You _flew_ to the office.”

“Will I ever live that down?” she sighs. “Alex told _Maggie_ I said that. She won’t let me forget either.”

Lena blinks, actually surprised by that. “The detective?”

Kara just waves a hand. “She’s dating my sister, nothing is sacred anymore.”

At that, Lena actually laughs. “It really is a small world.”

“Tell me about it.” There’s a moment then where Kara forgets that maybe Lena Luthor knows who she is and just watches the other woman laugh. It’s nice. “So you um…”

“I know.”

“Have you been teasing me all this time just to see how long it would take me to say something damning?” Kara pouts. (She’s been told it’s one of her more powerful talents.)

“Perhaps.” But Lena’s smiling in a way that Kara thinks she sort of likes and somehow she’s forgiven. “The glasses are a really poor disguise, just so you know.”

“How come half the people I know say that and the other half seem completely fooled by it?” she asks, a little bit petulant. “I don’t understand.” She waits, but Lena seems to know there’s something she hasn’t said yet. So she sucks in a deep breath and just asks, “Does it bother you?”

“That you’re an alien?” Lena queries back. And when Kara nods her smile shifts from the teasing slant to that soft one that makes her insides feel like jelly. “Of course not. I did say I’m very pro-alien.”

Kara adjusts her glasses, briefly wondering if they’re even worth continuing to wear. “You know,” she begins, not sure how to word what she wants to say. “Alex used to consider herself pro-alien. Because she’s my sister, I guess, and we’ve never had a problem with my being an alien.” She shrugs. “But then she spends so much of her time chasing after the ones causing trouble and I guess she forgot that not all aliens are like that and… I don’t know, recently it’s like she’s had to adjust what she considers pro-alien.”

Lena’s frowning again now, not a really concerned thing just, a slight crinkle to her brow as she thinks about this. “As in, being pro-alien means all aliens, not just her sister?”

“Right.”

“Well you’re not my sister, Kara.” She tilts her head, leans a little closer. Her fingers find Kara’s knee and it takes an awful lot of effort not to stare at that tiny connection and fall apart. “I wanted you to tell me. Knowing is one thing but…” Lena pauses, squeezes her knee. “I’d like if you trusted me?”

“Rao, I do. I just. It’s not quite as simple as just telling you. Alex would kill me.”

“Because I’m a Luthor?”

“Because Alex doesn’t trust anyone,” Kara explains simply. “She’s still upset that her co-workers know. Hell, she just about exploded when she found out I’d told friends the first time. And she _knew_ them. She’s a little over-protective.”

“She does know you’re bullet proof, I hope.”

Kara laughs. “Oh yes, she’s aware.”

Lena bites her lip before saying, “And that you could probably bench press my entire building?”

Something about the way she says it makes Kara squirm. “I think that’s probably classed as destruction of private property. I try to avoid that sort of thing.”

“And that’s why you’re the superhero.” Lena’s hand is still on her knee. Kara can feel it like it’s a brand.

She can also hear the way Lena’s heartbeat changes. Her hand finds Lena’s and then she mutters, “I think… I think I was worried if you knew who I am that you wouldn’t want me to visit anymore.”

“Why? What would ever make you think that?”

Kara’s mouth twists. “Your device? To find aliens. I thought maybe you were one of the people who wouldn’t feel safe around them. _Us_.”

Lena clucks her tongue. “Don’t be ridiculous. I was sort of hoping it would detect you and you’d have to explain. When I sent it to be checked for faulty parts the engineer told me some of the circuits had been fried.” Her head drops forward just a little, and with it, her voice lowers. “You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”

Kara feels her face flush. “Perhaps…”

“That’s adorable,” Lena laughs. This didn’t help Kara’s flush.

She flounders for a moment trying to find something to distract herself. “Am I really in your speed dial,” she blurts.

“Of course. Not listed as Supergirl, however, I do have a modicum of good sense.”

Kara frowns. “What am I listed as then?”

Lena simply smiles and says, “Kara.”

“How long have you known, exactly?” Kara wonders, unable to keep her gaze focused entirely on Lena’s eyes. (But that’s okay, because they haven’t been focused for a while.)

Lena hums. “Since you flew to the office. Nobody accidentally says that, Kara.”

She rolls her eyes, but asks her next question anyway. “And you’ve wanted me to tell you since then too, I suppose?”

“More or less.”

That totally explains the dual invite to her gala anyway. And stopping by her apartment that one time. Actually it explains most everything. Except… “Why didn’t you just ask me?”

Lena actually snorts. “I know how it feels to be backed into that sort of corner. One where you can answer the question and be uncomfortable doing it, or lie. It’s not fun; I didn’t want to put you there.”

“Has that changed or is this conversation an exception?” She says it a little wryly, since that’s sort of exactly what happened.

But Lena rolls her eyes and smiles that odd little smile and leans away. “I am not a particularly patient woman,” she says carefully. “And frankly, I wanted you to tell me that before I asked you out, but it didn’t seem like you were ever going to. I thought you might need some prompting.”

And wow wasn’t _that_ some information to process. Kara lifts a hand. “Back up. Ask me out?”

“I don’t let just anyone barge into my office at their whim,” Lena informs her with a raised eyebrow as if questioning whether Kara thought she did, in fact, do just that. “Nor do I drop by someone’s apartment unannounced just because I feel like it.”

“That’s what Maggie said,” Kara grumbles.

“If that’s out of the question, I totally understand,” Lena assured her. “But it’s not every day I meet someone like you.”

“An alien?”

Lena takes a second to think on that and replies, “Hopeful. Full of faith in people.”

“Oh.” That weird feeling is back, the one where she’s sure all her insides are made of jelly now. (And it’s eerily similar to something James said to her once. She tries not to dwell on that.) “Well…”

“It’s okay,” Lena says softly.

“Actually,” Kara interjects before Lena can continue on to say something stupid. “I was going to say my place tomorrow night? I can have this article done by then.”

For a moment Lena looks like she thinks she’s being pranked or something. But then very slowly, a smile shines through. “No take out.”

“Are you kidding? It’s pizza or bust,” Kara says, wondering if she’s lost her mind. No take out?

“No way. If that’s actually you agreeing to a date, I’m cooking. You have a kitchen that I’m sure doesn’t get any love.”

Kara closes her eyes and huffs dramatically. “I’ll have you know I use the coffee pot every morning.”

“And how much caffeine does it take to fuel an alien?”

“Probably enough to alarm you, honestly. That’s more fifth date information, I’m thinking.”

“I will most definitely hold you to that.”


End file.
